Poll: Romney outpolling McCain among Florida Latinos

A mid-October poll of Latino voters in both Florida and nationwide revealed that W. Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger to President Barack Obama is supported by more Florida Latinos than supported John S. McCain III in 2008.

Sunshine State Latino respondents support the president 50.7 percent compared to his 50.5 percent of the actual vote in the last election, and their support of Romney is at 44.2 percent compared to McCain‚??s actual vote percentage of 39 percent.

Nationally, 66 percent of the 1,000¬†Latino voters polled¬†would vote for Obama if the election were held today. In addition, the majority‚??62 percent‚??responded that they are better off today than they were four years ago, the report said.

Obama did best with Latinos of Dominican descent, the report said. They supported the president with 86 percent to just 12.1 percent for Romney.

Across all countries of origin except Cuba, Latinos responding to the survey said that Obama is better suited to handle the economy, immigration reform and foreign policy, the report said.

Gamarra said in Florida, the strongest support for Romney was among Latinos, who are Catholic, Cuban and living in the southern part of the state. ‚??If you are a Latino living in South Florida, you are not voting for Obama.‚?Ě

The poll‚??s margin of error is 3.5 percent. Just over half of the respondents, or 50.7 percent, answered that Obama has not fulfilled his promises to the U.S. Hispanic community. And the majority‚??54 percent‚??answered that they are not better off than they were four years ago, he said.

For a video of Gamarra explaining the importance of Latinos, click here.

Neil W. McCabe is the editor of HE's "Guns & Patriots" e-letter and was a senior reporter at the Human Events newspaper. McCabe deployed with the Army Reserve to Iraq for 15 months as a combat historian. For many years, he was a reporter and photographer for "The Pilot," Boston's Catholic paper. He was also the editor of the free community papers "The Somerville (Mass.) News and "The Alewife (North Cambridge, Mass.)." Email him: neilwmccabe@gmail.com Follow him on Twitter: @neilwmccabe.